Evaluation systems are required to detect smaller and smaller defects. Additionally or alternatively, evaluation systems are required to measure or detect smaller and smaller structural elements. Today, extreme ultra violet evaluation systems and deep ultra violet evaluation systems are required to detect smaller defects and smaller structural elements.
Solid immersion lenses are used for imaging and evaluation of substrates, with improved resolution. This is described for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,526,158; 7,221,502, 7,149,036; 7,359,115; 7,414,800 and 7,480,051, in US Patent Applications Publication Serial Nos. 2011/0216312 and 2012/0092655, and in Technical Note/Nanolens (Solid Immersion Lens) by Hamamatsu (http://www.hamamatsu.com/resources/pdf/sys/e_nanolens.pdf).
There is a growing need to provide evaluation system of nanometric scale resolution.